Prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization and infection in hospitalized palliative care patients with cancer.

Little is known about the pattern of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization and infection in hospitalized palliative care (PC) patients. We reviewed 854 admissions for 289 patients with advanced cancer managed by a PC service in a tertiary care hospital. The MRSA screening was performed at least once in 228 (79%) patients, and 21 (9%) of them were MRSA positive. Other cultures were done in 251 (86.8%) patients, and 8 (3%) patients were MRSA positive. The total number of MRSA-positive admissions was 28 (3%), with a median admission duration of 8 days. A substantial proportion of hospitalized PC patients with cancer are MRSA positive. Research is required to study the impact of infection control measures on the quality of PC delivered to MRSA-positive terminally ill patients in hospitals.